Rather than fight with the European Commission over the implementation details of the Nitrate Directive, outgoing Agriculture Minister Piet Adema continues to drive the knife into the livestock. He made this clear after the Friday cabinet meeting. The mission must be completed.
Adema wants a new generic discount on phosphate rights for transfers outside the family of 30%, also for pigs and chickens and also for transfers of entire companies, it says. in his plan. He also wants to gradually move towards a stocking rate of 0,35 hectares per livestock unit (LU), while retaining as much grassland as possible.
More grassland subsidies
That is why he wants to significantly increase the grassland subsidy, to €50 per 10 kilos of nitrogen. He also wants to reduce mineral emissions by limiting the average crude protein content in the feed to 158 grams per kilo of dry matter.
According to him, the entire package is necessary to reduce manure production by 33 million kilos of nitrogen and 11 million kilos of phosphate.
The plan will not go down well with agricultural organizations, which previously indicated that they were strongly against generic measures. Agraction for example, wants the derogation decision to be suspended. Farmers find the discount percentages disproportionate. The new LTO chairman Ger Koopmans is also critical. The (in)formative parties in the House of Representatives tried to prevent Adema from making a decision last week.
Motion ahead
The BBB even came up with a warning motion against generic measures at the end of last week, but withdrew it after criticism of prematureness. Nevertheless, the outgoing minister continued, supported by the cabinet.
It is striking that Adema wants to have his intention accompanied by environmental subsidies, but is otherwise silent about the consequences for the earning capacity of dairy farming. He is not alone in this. It is apparently difficult to properly connect sustainability and making ends meet. Rabobank Netherlands, for example, wants to encourage farmers to extensify with cheap loans, but seems to ignore the fact that farmers with more extensive business operations often have a lower earning capacity. There is also the problem that dairy buyers are increasingly asking for milk with the lowest possible CO2 footprint per kilo of product. This also requires more intensive rather than more extensive business operations. Even at large dairy companies, the company and the cooperative do not seem to have the same view on this.
Free advice for non-stayers
Adema admits that dairy farmers will not survive the introduction of his plans everywhere, but not because of a lagging earning capacity. "The government realizes that the introduction of a grassland standard in certain areas with intensive dairy farming can have major consequences," the minister writes, without mentioning the entire package.
Yet, according to the government, there is a solution: "This announcement and the phased introduction of the standards will enable companies to make decisions about the future of their business." In other words, the livestock farmers in question are still allowed to turn off the lights themselves.
Lots of outgoing ambition
It is intriguing why Adema felt it necessary to make another decision about the manure market and derogation. He could also have easily left the job to his successor. What's more, such a drastic plan is something for an outgoing minister? The House of Representatives may look at that question, because Adema can want something, but do nothing without the consent of parliament.
Nature Restoration Act deeper in la
In all this, the mission-orientation of the last Rutte cabinet, no matter how battered the club is, remains surprising. Last week it was already mentioned that Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Christianne van der Wal still seems to hope that the European Nature Restoration Act will be taken out of the trash bin again, even though the House of Representatives forced her to vote against. It fits her VVD-Greenpeace profile. Unfortunately for Van der Wal, the wind is not with her. The attempts by the Belgian EU presidency to resume the directive have been counterproductive in recent weeks. Countries like Finland and Poland, which at first seemed hesitant, are now determined opponents become.
It is still rather unclear how long the Netherlands can continue to enjoy the outgoing zest for action of Adema and Van der Wal, among others. BBB leader Caroline van der Plas said earlier this week that the (in)formation well on track lies, but much more is not clear.
Climate-threatening method
Outside of politics, the bashing of livestock farming continues. It is also popular with a large proportion of academic employees. This week, for example, a Leiden researcher, with a new calculation method in hand (i.e. not with direct figures), claimed that more than 80% of European agricultural support ultimately benefits climate-threatening livestock farming. Something like this almost automatically receives widespread attention in all kinds of general media. The reflex in this direction is strong.
It was up to D66
It is also noticeable at D66. An internal committee, with the cooperation of the scientific bureau, analyzed the election defeat at the end of last year. The report entitled 'It's up to us' was not widely distributed, but according to media that did see it, it was concluded that the average voter had come to find D66 'too woke'. Many citizens also found 'the technocratic claim to the truth' objectionable.
The autobiography certainly does not help directly. In the same week that the report surfaced, the party waved goodbye to one of its most notorious fact fetishists, Tjeerd de Groot, with a video entirely in the style of recent years.